Economics of ESRD in Developing Countries: India
Meguid El Nahas in Kidney Diseases in the Developing World and Ethnic Minorities, 2005
Facilities for purifying the water to a level suitable for use in HD are grossly inadequate throughout the developing world. The quality of municipal water is highly unpredictable. Water transported in tankers is used for dialysis in areas where the supply is irregular (37). Water treatment plants are not regularly serviced, and replacement of spent filters and cartridges is infrequent. This leads to substantial risk of exposure of patients to a number of contaminants. An example of this was seen in Brazil, when 50 patients dialyzed during a 4-day period in 1996 using water from tank trucks developed visual disturbances, nausea, and vomiting. Over the next 4 months, several patients died of liver failure. Investigations established contamination by a toxin named “microcystin-LR,” produced by an alga of the family Cyanobacteriaceae. The toxin was detected in the samples obtained from the source of water (a lake), the truck used for transporting water, dialysis filters, and the liver tissue of the affected patients. Investigations also revealed that the filters and cartridges in the water treatment plant had not been replaced on stipulated dates. In a survey carried out in 1999, only about 20% of all centers were found to be using some form of water purification system in India (38).
Non-Vaccine VLPs
Paul Pumpens in Single-Stranded RNA Phages, 2020
Then, the MS2 VLP-based armored RNA standard was applied to measure microcystin synthetase E gene (mcyE) expression in toxic Microcystis sp. (Rueckert and Cary 2009). It was highly important, since microcystin was a secondary metabolic peptide toxin known to cause hepatotoxicosis and carcinogenicity in vertebrates. It was produced by various bloom-forming cyanobacterial species constituting a serious threat to the quality of freshwater reservoirs worldwide. This important study indicated a growth phase−dependent expression of the mcyE gene, with the maximal level of expression observed during mid-log growth. With progressing age of the cultures, the mcyE was gradually down-regulated, with expression levels having declined by more than three orders of magnitude during the stationary growth phase (Rueckert and Cary 2009; Wood et al. 2011).
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment – Normal Response Models
Song S. Qian, Mark R. DuFour, Ibrahim Alameddine in Bayesian Applications in Environmental and Ecological Studies with R and Stan, 2023
Microcystins are a class of over 50 toxins (congeners) produced by certain freshwater cyanobacteria (commonly known as blue-green algae). They can cause serious liver damage. A U.S. EPA report cites a study showing that 80 percent of samples in Canada and U.S. were positive for microcystins and 4.3 percent were above the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline of 1 μg/L [U.S. EPA, 2015].
Outbreak of Haff disease caused by consumption of crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) in nanjing, China
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2019
Baofu Guo, Guoxiang Xie, Xiaocheng Li, Yun Jiang, Di Jin, Yonglin Zhou, Yue Dai, Shiqi Zhen, Guiju Sun
While the etiology of rhabdomyolysis in Haff disease is unknown, it is considered to be caused by an unidentified, heat-stable toxin, which is similar to cyanotoxins or palytoxin [7,8,17,19,20]. An investigation via a mouse model indicated that the hazardous substance causing crayfish-induced rhabdomyolysis was not an allergen or palytoxin [21]. No microcystins were found in our laboratory analyses, and the exact etiology remains unconfirmed. In Chen’s study, some mice which were administered with gills, intestines, and glands (GIG) obtained from cooked crayfish appeared to show rhabdomyolysis symptoms. The majority of cases we reported have eaten the contents of crayfish’s head and removed crayfish’s gut during cooking or eating process, and the case-control study revealed that eating crayfish head and intestine might be related to increased disease risk, which suggests that the toxin inducing the rhabdomyolysis might be present in the head part of the crayfish.
Effects of electron beam irradiation on proteins and exopolysaccharide production and changes in Microcystis aeruginosa
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2020
Shuyu Liu, Yan Tan, Fang Ma, Hanzhuo Fu, Ying Zhang
Harmful cyanobacteria blooms increasingly appear across the globe and significantly impact the quality of drinking water, which closely tie to human being health (Swanepoel et al. 2017). Among the algae contributed to blooms, Microcystis aeruginosais were the most common type which could produces microcystin (MC) harmful algae that strongly impact general public health (Majsterek et al. 2004). A large number of studies on conventional water treatment process i.e. filtration, coagulation, and chemical oxidation by chlorine or ozone demonstrated progress which can reduce the toxicity of MCs, but high running cost, sophisticated operation requirements (Petruševski et al. 1993; Daly et al. 2007; Rodríguezi et al. 2007). Newer tools are being developed and evaluated to overcome these disadvantages, for example, advanced oxidation process including UV (Utlraviolet)/H2O2 or ultrasonic irradiation (Liu et al. 2017; Loganathan 2017). Electron beam irradiation (EBI) can cause radiolysis forming electron (eaq−), hydroxyl radical (•OH) and hydrogen radical (H•) in aqueous solutions to destroy the DNA chains in organism (Ghassemzadeh et al. 2013). Due to these characters, EBI is being widely used for sterilization in food processing, medical equipment and material disinfection, and treatment of medical waste (Helfinstine et al. 2005; Pillai and Shayanfar 2018). With its unique feature of generating reactive oxygen free radicals, EBI could be utilized to degrade pollutants and a trend is seeing that EBI exhibits its strength in wastewater treatment area (Vahdat et al. 2010; Han et al. 2012; Shao et al. 2018).
Milk thistle (Silybum Marianum) as an antidote or a protective agent against natural or chemical toxicities: a review
Published in Drug and Chemical Toxicology, 2020
Sahar Fanoudi, Mohaddeseh Sadat Alavi, Gholamreza Karimi, Hossein Hosseinzadeh
Microcystin-LR (MC-LR) is a potent cyclic peptide toxin produced by cyanobacteria (blue-green Microcystis aeruginosa) (de Figueiredo et al. 2004). This toxin has been known as a reason of even death and human hepatotoxicity (Xu et al. 2007).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Aspartic Acid
- Cyanobacteria
- Peptide
- Toxin
- Amino Acid
- Microcystin-Lr
- NONribosomal Peptide
- Proteinogenic Amino Acid
- Beta-Peptide
- ADDa